Three times a day, the cows at David Pool's North Heidelberg Township farm meander into the milking parlor.

And each day, a milk truck arrives, destined for either Clover Farms Dairy in Muhlenberg Township or to North Carolina for processing and bottling. The destination all depends on the needs of the cooperative to which Pool ships milk.

When Pool's milk stays in Pennsylvania and is sold in local stores, he qualifies for a state-sponsored premium designed to give the state's farmers more money for their milk. Funding for that premium is provided by nearly everyone who buys a gallon of milk in a local store.

But Pool and other Pennsylvania dairy farmers are growing frustrated with a system that they say is being manipulated to keep more money in the hands of milk bottlers.

They are backing a bill sponsored by state Sen. Mike Brubaker, a Lancaster County Republican, that would reform the state's over-order premium, which charges a 25-cent tax on milk that is produced, bottled and sold in Pennsylvania.

"Doing nothing is not a viable option," Brubaker said. "This is an issue of fairness."

Brubaker's plan would put revenue from the premium into a pool and distribute it to dairy farmers to help even disparities in the system.

However, the bill hasn't moved from the Senate agriculture and rural affairs committee, adding to the sense of frustration among dairy farmers.

"The consumer is getting the wrong end of the deal," Pool said. "That money is going to corporate America."

Dairy farmers believe that milk bottlers have found a loophole in the Milk Marketing Law by shipping milk across state lines for temporary storage, but still collecting the premium at the store. Farm organizations estimate that at least $15 million a year in premium money does not reach dairy farmers.

"We are not trying to reinvent the wheel," said Nelson Troutman, a Marion Township dairy farmer who supports Brubaker's legislation. "The over-order premium is supposed to be ours, not the processors'."

Because Pennsylvania also brings in milk from out-of-state farmers, it would need to share that premium revenue with those producers if changes to the Milk Marketing Law were adopted, said Earl Fink, executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers, whose organization represents milk bottlers.

The over-order premium has benefited dairy farmers in Pennsylvania, bringing more than $500 million since its inception in 1989, he said.

Fink said he doubts that milk is being moved across state lines for temporary storage.

"With $4 a gallon diesel fuel, you don't move milk if you don't have to," he said.

Still, Brubaker said he is pushing for reforms but knows that it will be an uphill battle, given the complexity of milk pricing.

"Farmers are getting ripped off," he said. "There is a lot of effort going on to maintain the status quo."

State Sen. Judy Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat and minority chairwoman of the agriculture and rural affairs committee, said she supports reforms in the state's milk marketing laws. However, there are concerns that the legislation might run afoul of federal interstate commerce laws.

Given the lack of movement on the bill, it is understandable that farmers are frustrated, Schwank said. But lawmakers need to make sure the law will not cause any undue harm.

"Maybe it is time for us to go back to the beginning," she said. "Any leverage that I can find to move this forward, I will use it."